


more like a justice league

by lethargicProfessor



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Justice League - All Media Types, Superman (Comics)
Genre: Gen, batfam established before a justice league, batfamily, clark goes recruiting, it doesn't go well, justice league au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-11 22:50:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7073707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lethargicProfessor/pseuds/lethargicProfessor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The confrontation with the Bat does not go as Clark had imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The confrontation with the Bat does not go as Clark had imagined.

In fact, his appearance is almost underwhelming after the stories he’s heard throughout his stay in Gotham. He expected a creature made of shadows, a monster even, hulking and bloodthirsty.

The man standing before him is impressive, yes, but not the myth Gotham had pushed to the world.

When it is evident the man, the Bat won’t speak first, Clark steps forward. “My name is Su—“

“I know who you are,” the Bat cuts in, voice deeper than he imagined, further garbled by a mechanism in his cowl. “Why are you here?”

If Clark didn’t know any better, he would say the man sounded almost petulant. He clears his throat regardless, pressing forward. “I wanted to see if the rumors were true.”

And this time there’s a barely perceptible smirk on the Bat’s face as he crosses his arms. “You came all the way to Gotham for a rumor?”

“I came to see if it was true,” Clark responds, mimicking the Bat’s posture. “You do some good things here in Gotham.”

The Bat falls silent again, and Clark takes it as a sign to continue. “The Justice League would be glad to have you.”

There’s a shift in the air; the Bat stiffens, and a deep frown pulls at his lips. He raises a hand to stop Clark, and glances off to his left. “Robin. I told you to stay put.”

A blur of black and gold stomps past Clark, and it takes him a moment to fully digest what he’s seeing. The child in the hooded cape cranes his neck to look up at the Bat, blatantly ignoring Clark as he sets his hands on his hips. “You said—“

“I know.” The Bat eases the child to his side, half-hidden from Clark by his bulk. “We’ll talk later.”

The child clicks his tongue irritably, but falls silent. Clark imagines he hears snickering beyond the rooftops, but isn’t able to focus on the sound before the Bat’s gaze returns to him. “The Justice League.”

It’s more a question than a statement, and Clark takes the opening. “We work together to handle bigger threats. We’re not asking you to leave Gotham, of course. But having you as a member would–”

“I don’t work well with others,” the Bat growls. Clark wants to argue, but before he can open his mouth, the Bat reaches out with impeccable timing to grab the scruff of the boy in black and yellow as he attempts to leave.

The child squirms, face scrunched in irritation as Batman lifts him with one hand off the ground. He crosses his arms sullenly, glaring at Clark as if it’s somehow his fault. “Father, you’re _embarrassing_ me.”

“Look,” Clark begins again, trying to keep the grin off his face. “We could really use your help in the League.”

“I’m not interested,” Batman replies, turning away, the boy – his son? – still dangling a foot from the ground. “We have enough to worry about in Gotham.”

“We could help you!” Clark moves to follow, the faintest sound of footsteps echoing across the rooftops to his left. “Two people can’t fight crime on their own.”

Batman pauses, a real smirk on his face as he glances back. “And who said anything about two people?”

The laughter around him is surprisingly close, and Clark frowns as he glances at the group of five surrounding him, a bat emblazoned across their chests.

The Bat nods at him once, a dismissal, and throws himself off the rooftop with the child following close behind. The other bats follow suit, leaving him standing alone on the rooftop.

Diana was never going to believe him.


	2. Chapter 2

Clark’s mind is swirling with questions as he paces his apartment, eyes darting to the clock on the wall every so often. They have a lot to get through before he leaves, and he wants to make sure they get to the most important matter: the Bat. The others usually aren’t late to their meetings, and he can understand if they are since the trip to Metropolis is pretty long, but he can’t help but feel anxious as the minutes tick by.

Diana arrives right on time, just as Lois gives him a call. Clark winces, shrugging apologetically at her as he fumbles his phone. “Hello?”

_“There’s been a change in plans, Smallville_ ,” Lois says, clipped and breathless over the line. There’s a burst of static, and then a barrage of swearing from Lois, along with what is definitely a car honking.

Diana covers her mouth, snorting faintly as she steps past Clark and towards the kitchen. Clark shakes his head, shutting his door, half-listening to Diana banging through his cabinets. Lois sounds fine, though if he focuses enough, he can hear her heartbeat erratically. “You okay, Lo?”

“ _Just peachy_ ,” she snaps, pitching her voice lower, as if to keep someone from hearing. _“Just wish some people in this city knew how to drive_.”

“Don’t pick fights with cars, Lois.” Clark says, and Diana laughs. He looks up, spotting her as she sets herself on his recliner with a mug of coffee and a carton of leftover Chinese. She shrugs at his questioning glance, taking a delicate sip of her mug.

_“I’m not. Not today, at least_.” Lois huffs out a breath, and he can almost picture her flicking her hair back. “ _Anyways, Jimmy’s got food poisoning._ ” And the sound Lois makes is pure agony. _“He’s out for at least a couple of days. Can you swing by and grab his camera before meeting us?”_

“Sure, Lois.” Clark rubs his neck, tilting his head to listen to the footsteps making their way up to his floor. He waves at Diana to catch her attention, pointing at the door, and thankfully, she catches his drift. “I have a meeting to finish up before heading over but I’ll be there, don’t worry.”

_“I already let Perry know, and Jimmy will be waiting for you at his place.”_

The knock at the door is light and familiar, but Diana still cracks the door open to peek before letting J’onn in. Clark hums at Lois in agreement, squeezing J’onn’s shoulder in greeting. Diana ushers him to the living room, tapping her wrist at Clark.

“I’ll be seeing you then, Lois,” Clark nods at Diana, turning on the spot to listen to two sets of footsteps hurry up the stairs. “Be careful, okay?”

_“I’ll be fine,_ ” she laughs, the sound suddenly deafening as she steps into the subway. _“Gotta run! See you soon_.”

“You’re very dressed up for a Thursday evening,” J’onn notes when Clark hangs up, letting his disguise fall in the privacy of Clark’s living room. The Martian has found the sleeve of Chocos Clark had bought for him, and eagerly tucks in.

“Duty calls,” Clark replies dryly, taking the proffered carton of Chinese food from Diana. “Make yourselves at home, by the way.”

“Always.” Diana smiles, and J’onn chuckles before offering them a cookie. “You work tonight?”

“Unfortunately.” And it’s not that Clark minds his work, he would just rather not cover Lex Luthor’s annual gala with Lois _and_ Cat Grant. “You’re welcome to stay the night if you need to, but I probably won’t be back before late tonight.”

“I might take you up on that,” J’onn murmurs, looking up at the frantic knocks on Clark’s door. Diana shakes her head, rolling her eyes fondly. Clark sighs, heaving himself up to get the door for their missing members.

“Evening, boys.” Barry looks sheepish as he waves at Clark, squeezing past him. “Caught in traffic?”

“Or something.” Hal nods, following after Barry. “Fastest man alive, my ass. How many meetings have we been the last ones to?”

“See, you say that, but you still call me to pick you up, so…” Barry smiles.

“It’ll be a short meeting today, folks,” Clark says, trailing after Hal and Barry to his admittedly small living room. “Lois and I have a gala to cover.”

“Ooh, a _gala_ ,” Hal drawls, dropping heavily onto Clark’s couch. It squeaks a little under his weight, and Clark feels a twinge of pleasure at the outraged look Hal gives it. J’onn shares a look with Clark but says nothing.

“It’s work,” Clark stresses instead, sitting on the recliner’s armrest besides Diana, fussing with his tie. It’s too tight and he hates how it feels and how it smells, but Lois insisted earlier they had to match.

Barry laughs, leaning in on his knees eagerly, looking around the apartment with clear wonder. “Y’know, I don’t think I’m ever going to get over the fact that Superman is a reporter.”

 “It’s good,” Hal adds, settling more comfortably into the couch. “No one would expect it, that’s for sure.”

“We’re not here to talk about our identities,” Diana says, taking Clark’s tie from between his fingers, apparently fed up with his fussing. She ties it around her neck deftly and loosens the knot, handing it back to Clark. “You called the meeting, Clark. What news do you have?”

Right. Clark clears his throat, pushing on the bridge of his nose absentmindedly, ears going red when Barry slides his glasses over.  “I went to Gotham. I saw the Bat.”

Hal immediately sits up, and Barry’s eyes snap to Clark. “Yeah? What’s he like? Is he really a giant bat?”

“More importantly,” Hal cuts in, shoving Barry back into the couch. “Is he in?”

The look on Clark’s face tells them everything, because Barry and Hal fall back in tandem with a groan. Diana frowns. “He didn’t agree then.”

“Not…exactly.” Clark sighs, holding his hands out before him a bit helplessly. “He said he doesn’t work well with others—“

“Wow, what an ass.” Hal says.

“—But it looks like he has an entire network in Gotham.” Clark finishes, staring pointedly at Hal. “There’s at least six of them, if not more.”

“More bats?” Barry asks, brow furrowed. “But…wouldn’t we have heard of them? I mean, the Bat is a person, right? There’s gotta be reports and stuff about him?”

Clark shakes his head. He had done the research before stepping foot in Gotham, and most of what he had was hearsay at best.  “Look…the Bat has been a Gotham legend for years. Pictures are rare, and they’ve only recently come out. It’s all blurry pictures and alleged sightings.”

“But you saw him,” J’onn says.

“But I saw him.” Clark nods, thinking back to his meeting. It was short and bizarre, but there’s something else about it he can’t put his finger on. “He has a kid.”

“The Bat does?” Hal asks, eyebrows shooting up. “How do you know? Do you know who he is?”

“No…No, I don’t.” And in hindsight it would have been wise to use his X-Ray vision on him, but the thought never crossed Clark’s mind. “He called him Robin. He was young, too. Probably twelve? Ten?”

The sound Diana’s mug makes against his coffee table makes Clark jump; she seems calm, but her shoulders are taut, and he can almost feel her disapproval. “He is using children to fight crime?”

“Well, they’re not _normal_ kids, right?” Hal shrugs, leaning back into the couch once more. “They have to be metahuman. How else would you explain all that? For the Bat…hell, for the family to stay unknown for so long?”

“That is still no reason to send children off to battle.” Diana’s response is tart, and Clark takes that as his cue to kick everyone out of his apartment.

J’onn, bless him, seems to agree, giving an exaggerated yawn. Clark isn’t even sure if Martians can yawn, or if he’s picked that up from his time on Earth. “As intriguing as this conversation is, it is late. Perhaps we can think of our next plan of action on our next meeting?”

“I’ll see if I can’t go back to Gotham, maybe look into reports a little more.” Clark says, standing. “I’ll stay in touch, though.”

“Next meeting’s in Central!” Barry grins, waving goodbye to Diana and J’onn. “I found a really cool warehouse we could use as base if you’re down.”

“That sounds awful in every sense of the word.” Hal grumbles, saluting at the rest of the members before following Barry out the door. “Keep us posted on the Bat, Clark.”

“Sure, Hal.” Clark waits for the door to close behind him before dropping heavily onto the couch, wincing as a few creaky springs finally snap.

Diana rolls her eyes, letting the tension seep from her shoulders. “Don’t you have to go meet Jimmy before heading to work, Clark?”

Work, he forgot. Clark groans, dragging his hands down his face, ignoring the teasing laughter from J’onn and Diana.


End file.
